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West African box trade deploys bigger ships to serve more people

WEST African container trade and the ships deployed to service it are getting bigger compared to those serving East Africa, notes Dutch maritime research firm Dynamar.

In a report released earlier this year, it noted that average size of the 112 box ships on Asia-west Africa services, which were estimated to have been deployed by 10 different carriers, was 5,300 TEU.

This average included the 13,100-TEUers deployed by Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC) for its hub and spoke operation at Lome in Togo, reported London's IHS-Fairplay.

In the Asia-East Africa trades, on the other hand, Dynamar estimated that average vessel size was just 2,900-TEU, with nine different carriers operating a total of 52 vessels, with the largest vessel being 4,900-TEU.

It also noted that many more international terminal operators were active in West Africa, including Maersk's APMT, Bollore, China Merchants, CMA Terminals, DP World, ICTSI, Portek and MSC's TIL Group.

Hong Kong's Hutchison Port Holdings was, for a long time, the only international operator in East Africa via its Tanzania International Container Terminal Services operation in Dar es Salaam.

Last year, however, DP World, which already operates the Doraleh Container Terminal in Djibouti, obtained a 30-year concession for the development of a multipurpose port in Berbera, Somaliland, while P&O obtained a similar concession earlier this year to develop and operate the port of Bossaso, Somalia.

Dynamar added that East Africa covers a much smaller area than West Africa, with a total population of 317 million, spread out among just four coastal countries and seven landlocked countries, which are served by just six main ports.

This is compared with West Africa's 491 million people distributed among 20 coastal and five landlocked countries, which are served by nine main ports.

Dynamar noted that inland transport links in Africa are vital for its landlocked nations. Road and rail is up to 2.5 times more expensive than ocean carriage, so some countries "pay more for their imports and get less for their exports" the report said.